"Child Star": Demi Lovato and Raven-Symoné paved the way for Jojo Siwa and others

Out of all the mega Disney starlets of the late aughts — Demi Lovato has resonated with me the most. 

The "Camp Rock" and "Sonny with a Chance" lead was not only a killer comedic actor to a 10-year-old version of me, but they were also an effortlessly talented vocalist. Lovato was at the center of Disney Channel's pop-rock revival, singing hit songs like "Don't Forget" or "La La Land" on albums like "Don't Forget" and "Here We Go Again," which debuted at the top of the Billboard charts in 2008 and 2009.

But despite the rapidly accelerating fame that turned a small-town Texas child into one of the most recognizable child stars in the '00s — the negatives outweighed whatever wins Lovato experienced in her adolescent career. This battle within herself, her mental health and the unforgiving fame machine ripped Lovato to shreds, leading to an almost fatal overdose in 2018. Her recovery left the star to reassemble the pieces of her identity after years of public falls.

This is shown in the musician's new Hulu documentary, "Child Star." Co-directed by Nicola Marsh, the pair interview stars like Drew Barrymore, Raven-Symoné, Kenan Thompson, Christina Ricci and JoJo Siwa to dispel the intoxicating allure around child stardom. The numerous actors and performers detail excruciating details of drug and alcohol abuse, child labor exploitation and an industry rife with homophobia and exclusion. 

Years after the Disney rise of stars Lovato and Symoné, both have come out as queer. Symoné, who is a lesbian, is married to her longtime partner Miranda Maday. Lovato, who has said they are pansexual, also came out as nonbinary, using she/they pronouns. The pair didn't come out until their careers with Disney were long over — showcasing Lovato and Symoné were closeted most of their very public adolescence. This is a different juxtaposition to Siwa, a former Nickelodeon star who came out at 17 on TikTok. 

While Siwa faced surmounting challenges when she came out — the star was able to do it years earlier than child stars who came before her like Lovato and Symoné. A sign that societal expectations and cultural shifts have moved towards acceptance rather than the alienation and silencing Lovato and Symoné faced growing up queer on television and in the public eye.

Lovato and Symoné's Disney days 

As leads of both of their multiple shows and series of movies, Lovato and Symoné dominated the Disney Channel for several years for their work on "That's So Raven," "The Cheetah Girls," "Sonny with a Chance" and "Camp Rock." However, their complete takeover of children's entertainment meant they kept a rigorous schedule that kept someone like Lovato filming and recording music nonstop for years.

The machine that propelled both stars from nameless children to superstars was grueling, especially for Lovato, who was physically and mentally burnt out. Lovato said to Symoné, “I didn’t know you could take time off because no one told me."

"At one point, I played 70 shows in 90 days. I was going to have two nights off and then when push came to shove, they were like, ‘We need those two days of rehearsals for the movie,'" she said.

For Symoné, who got her child acting start as early as her toddler years in "The Cosby Show," she said she always understood that acting was work from a young age.

“I knew it was work immediately. My parents made sure that I understood that this was a job. I get paid for it. You show up professionally," she said. “I knew at 3 how much I was making and I understood it's a job. If you lose it, you don’t make that money.”

While the success of their young careers fueled their families' lifestyles and their own youthful ambitions, Symoné revealed that the demands of her schedule and life pushed her further from the truth about her sexuality. She described that she had to wear a mask and didn't let anyone see the real her for "a very long time." The star said she always knew she was gay since she was 12, while she was working for Disney. Symoné came out at 28 in 2013.

"There was a moment in my life where I was asked if I wanted to stop being straight. But it was like second season of 'That’s So Raven.' It was like the third album," she said.

She continued, "I was like, ‘Why would you ask me that question now? Just to make me feel bad to say yes, when you know I don’t really want to be here right now?’"

As for Lovato, the singer didn't come out until 2020, when she was 28, and later shared they were non-binary in 2021. They shared that they chose "gender-neutral pronouns" as “this best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression. I’m doing this for those out there that haven’t been able to share who they truly are with their loved ones.”

Decades since their teenage stints with Disney, both Lovato and Symoné are openly living without fear of retaliation for their identities and the grueling demands of child stardom expectations. Symoné even starred in a "That's So Raven" spinoff, "Raven's Home," in 2017 after she came out. Lovato also has persevered, despite her public struggles with addiction. Their pain and experience led the way for child entertainers like Siwa to cement themselves as a person for queer children to look up to. 

Siwa's freedom

Always with a bow plopped onto her head, the now 21-year-old Siwa took the Nickelodeon world by storm. The professional dancer, who was a member of the TLC show "Dance Moms," was signed to Nickelodeon in 2017. Siwa was in various shows and movies for the channel and even released her own movie, "The J Team," in 2021. 

But in Siwa's experience with the channel, and her lucrative "umbrella deal" where "they owned all the rights to everything, except for social media" — her vocal use of social media would later become an issue.

In 2021, when she was 17, the demands of her job and hiding her identity began to wear on her. "People would always ask me, ‘Are you gay?’ and I would be like, ‘I don’t think I’m anything,'" she said to Lovato.

She explained that she “was on Facetime with my girlfriend, and I did a video singing ‘Born This Way,’ and was like, 'I think I want to put this on my Reels Story,' because it was just my close friends."

The video of Siwa's accidental coming out was posted to her Instagram and TikTok and circulated widely on the Internet. But Siwa stated this led to friction and pushback from Nickelodeon executives.

She explained, “I didn’t realize that no child star as still a child star had ever come out before. The president of the network called me and was like, ‘What are we gonna tell the kids?’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’"

The child star was then forced to have conversations with retailers like Target, Claire's and Toys "R" Us, to show that she was not going "crazy." She said, “Everything after I came out changed. The way they communicated with me changed. The way they worked with me changed. The way they developed my work changed. Everything changed.”

However, Nickelodeon refuted Siwa's claims and experience. In a statement to People Magazine, Nickelodeon said, “We are unaware of the incident JoJo is referencing and she was certainly not blackballed by Nickelodeon. We have valued and supported JoJo throughout our incredibly successful partnership, which included a JoJo-themed Pride collection at a major national retailer, among our many collaborations together. We continue to cheer her on and wish her nothing but the best.”

Then and Now

Siwa's experience with Nickelodeon led the star to big heights, even though she alleged that they blackballed her. She told Lovato, "I guess I didn't realize how young I was — how 'scary' it was supposed to be, but I think it was the best thing I could've ever done. I don't think coming out should be a scary thing. I wish there wasn't that stigma around it."

But part of her experience and her continued success has been bolstered by people like Lovato and Symoné, who lived their adolescence in fear of being found out for their true selves. Years after these stars' peak Disney and Nick days, the fear is still felt by children across the U.S. as many anti-LGBTQ+ laws are being enacted in local governments. Laws like banning transgender children from bathrooms and sports, or denying them gender-affirming medical care which is often lifesaving, have attempted to hinder progress made in the community, The UN Human Rights Watch said.

Attitudes have shifted with lesbian pop stars like Siwa using an industry attempting to shut her out as a way to affirm her own sexuality. Hopefully, the next queer child star after Lovato, Symoné and Siwa can look back at their examples in admiration and follow in their trailblazing footsteps too.